National security is an entirely different story because the Russian armed forces require their own navigation systems that would not depend on Global Positioning System providers. However, airlines all over the world, including Russia's, rely heavily on the Global Positioning System Navstar system, and it would be impossible to change this situation.

Although GPS receivers have become extremely popular with the world's motorists, Russia has only 360,000 miles of paved roads, while the minimal nationwide requirement is 720,000 miles. European Russia has eight times less roads than Poland and seven times less than Latvia.

The situation east of the Urals mountains range is even more deplorable. Arctic regions and other areas with the same status account for 60 percent of Russian territory and for just 15 percent of the country's roads.

It appears that the ambitious GLONASS network will have very few users in Russia. The Federal Space Agency used to advertise the Kliper spacecraft as a replacement for the obsolete Soyuz taxis until August 2006, when the new system, developed by the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia headed by Nikolai Sevastyanov, was rejected completely.

Exorbitant research and development costs and the seemingly unattractive winged design were cited as the main reasons for scrapping the Kliper project. Consequently, the Russian space program, which sorely needs a new transport system, has been hurled back. And it is absolutely unclear when a new spacecraft will appear.

In early February Vitaly Lopota, the newly appointed chief executive officer of the Energia heavy rocket corporation, told respected daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta that the R&D effort still continued. He said that the spacecraft design would be unveiled before August and that it would take at least six to seven years to develop a new spacecraft.

Lopota hinted politely that the Federal Space Agency should not impose the space-capsule concept on designers. It is common knowledge that the space-capsule concept had been proposed as an alternative to Kliper, advocated by the rebellious Sevastyanov.

The year 2007 can largely be called successful in terms of space exploration. However, the Audit Chamber believes that the Federal Space Agency's programs are not market-oriented. First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov is right in saying that the long-term guidelines of the Russian national space program's development will be determined in 2008. This probably implies that Russia can retreat no longer.

-- (Andrei Kislyakov is a political commentator for RIA Novosti. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

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